Choosing an industrial automation solution provider can be a tricky business - not only because they have to be financially sound to back the solutions bought from them but also because they need to have the vision to provide their customers with an evolutionary and integrated way of solving operational problems as and when required.
A leading South African manufacturer of metallurgical powders serves as a good example of the success of 'grow as you go' with compatible solutions from Wonderware.
The production process of these metallurgical powders requires the use of arc furnaces, induction furnaces, raw material batch weighing systems, dust filter plants, granulation/atomising processes, milling plants and final product weighing and packaging facilities.
An evolutionary approach
The company did not start with a global vision of its industrial automation and information needs. Instead, it focused on what was important at the time (automation and control); little suspecting that its real production needs would eventually require an increasingly varied range of solutions:
p The company started with a single InTouch (HMI scada) system in the early 1990s and this was gradually implemented in every section of the plant.
* The next step included the use SPC (statistical process control) with InTouch in order to optimise the production processes.
* Then followed the implementation of IndustrialSQL (InSQL) with a 5000-tag database.
* Next on the agenda was Active Factory, which was used to analyse and report InSQL data.
* In order to disseminate Active Factory information, the SuiteVoyager Web portal was used to distribute reports and live data on the company's own intranet.
* The next requirement was for a system that would alert relevant personnel as to problems/alarms in their areas. In came scadalarm with its ability to send out voice messages, e-mails and SMSs as well as daily production figures and downtimes longer than an hour.
* A significant addition was the introduction of DT (down time) Analyst - to capture actual downtimes and their reasons.
* QI analyst then replaced SPC and was used for quality control.
* The company then linked its LIMS software to InSQL and InTouch.
According to a spokesman for the company, "Wonderware products were chosen mainly for their functionality, their ability to eliminate integration problems between applications and to protect existing investments. Other reasons for our choice included the level of support we have enjoyed from Futuristix in the past and the continuous improvement and development of products from Wonderware. Today, DT Analyst and SuiteVoyager have become an integral part of our daily boardroom meetings. We have collected and integrated an exceptional range of production and diagnostic tools that help us get on with the business of satisfying our customers' needs profitably. During the next financial year we will expand DT Analyst to include fully automatic overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) measurement and upgrade InSQL to a 25 000-tag database."
For more information contact Mike le Plastrier, Futuristix, 011 723 9900, [email protected], www.futuristix.co.za
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